Former President of India Pranab Mukherjee on June 7 hailed Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, the founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, as “a great son of Mother India”, raising eyebrows in many quarters

Former President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday hailed Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, the founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), as "a great son of Mother India", leading to raised eyebrows in many quarters.

"Today I came here to pay my respect and homage to a great son of Mother India," Mukherjee wrote in the visitor's book as he visited Hedgewar's birthplace, accompanied by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. The Hedgewar home was also the venue of the first ever meeting of the RSS, which he founded in September 1925.

Accorded a warm welcome at the RSS headquarters, Mukherjee was shown around the Hedgewar memorial premises which includes a small temple. Mukherjee, a Congress party veteran, was in Nagpur to address the RSS cadre at the organisation's final leg of three-year training programme called the 'Tritiya Varsh Varg'.

His visit to the RSS HQ has raised many an eyebrow, including in his own party. His comments on Hedgewar have only served to raise eyebrows even further, leaving many commentators anguished.

The RSS was banned on February 4, 1948 following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. The ban was lifted on July 11, 1949 after then Sarsanghchalak MS Golwalkar gave an undertaking that the organisation would abide by the Indian Constitution. Pranab Mukherjee also paid tributes to Golwalkar in Nagpur on Thursday.

KB Hedgewar founded the RSS in September 1925 and throughout the rest of its life under the British Raj, remained subservient to the colonising power and opposed the Mahatma Gandhiâs mass movements for Indiaâs freedom in every phase of the struggle. https://t.co/Amm8Dz3TxN

Hedgewar, who described Muslims as 'hissing Yavana snakes', had to be put in place or they were to face extinctionâbecome 'dead as a dodo'. Buddhism spreads 'cowardice' & Mahatma Gandhi was 'dushatma'. pic.twitter.com/TWl3wYdvxZ

Respected @CitiznMukherjee Hedgewar, who you call a great son of Mother India, described Indian Muslims as "Yavana Snakes". Do you subscribe to this view? Your praise of this man is an insult to India's religious minorities https://t.co/W9hdLVl8I1

Hedgewar lead @RSSorg was never part of the anti-imperialist struggle. On the contrary, since its inception in 1925, the RSS only tried to disrupt the great anti-imperialist struggle of the Indian people against the British colonial rulers.â#RSSTritiyaVarsh